Ms Manningham-Buller, aged 54, the daughter of a former Tory attorney general, was one of the handlers of Colonel Gordievsky in Britain and thus has a connection with Mr Scarlett. MI5 is recognised as having had a highly successful role in the "war on terror". ELIZA MANNINGHAM-BULLER Eliza Manningham-Buller is the recently appointed head of MI5, the Security Service, and the second woman to hold the post after Stella Rimington. He has been in a team that is monitoring Iraq's alleged chemical and biological warfare developments, so Mr Scarlett would have been dealing with information supplied by Mr Inkster. He is a contemporary of Tony Blair at Oxford University, but is not known to have any strong links with Downing Street. NIGEL INKSTER The deputy to Sir Richard Dearlove, the outgoing head of MI6, is seen as the successor the service favours.

Fifty years old, a family man with children, he is known as a dapper dresser. But his handling of the September Iraq weapons dossier, and supposed acquiesence to Downing Street demands has been highly damaging to his reputation. His appointment as the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee was seen as another triumph for the Secret Intelligence Service. Who knows what will happen?" THE CONTENDERS FOR THE TOP JOB IN BRITISH INTELLIGENCE JOHN SCARLETT The former MI6 chief of the Moscow bureau has had a successful career so far, and played an important role in the operation that saved the life of Oleg Gordievsky, MI6's agent inside the KGB.

Officers in the service believe the appointment of Mr Scarlett would perpetuate that embarrassment. A Whitehall source said: "John Scarlett had a good career in the service, and could hope to go the top. But the problem is his association with the way the September dossier was presented, and his obvious connections with Downing Street. The feeling is that he found it difficult to deal with all the machinations that went on there. There are various things that will come out in the wash before Dearlove leaves.